Robert Christopher, Richard Meltz charged in plot

A police official at a Massachusetts veterans hospital and a former New York City high school librarian have been arrested in connection with the so-called "cannibal cop" Gilberto Valle, the former New York police officer convicted of conspiring to cook and eat women.

Richard Meltz, chief of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service, based in Bedford, Mass., and Christopher Asch, of New York, were arrested on charges that they plotted to rape and murder women.

The men are expected to make appearances Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

They are charged with conspiring from at least the spring of 2011 until Monday to carry out the plot.

"As alleged, both of these defendants took affirmative steps to carry out the conspiracy to kidnap and torture women. Their actions were not confined to talking about these ghoulish plans. They acquired the tools to accomplish the deed, including a Taser and the chemical means to anesthetize their victims," FBI Assistant Director George Vanizelos said.

Meltz, chief of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service, based in Bedford, Mass., was arrested Sunday in New Jersey, police said.

"At the VA, the first priority is the safety of our veterans, their family members and our staff,” said spokeswoman Kristin Pressly. "We’re cooperating fully with law enforcement."

The FBI says the men responded last October to online solicitations. A man said he wanted help to kidnap, rape and kill his wife and sister-in-law and her children.

Asch is quoted in the criminal complaint discussing kidnapping, killing and eating women and children. At one point he calls it an "exciting proposition." He also discusses in detail how to dismember a body so the DNA cannot be traced, police said.

Some of the conversations are between Asch and Meltz, officials said.

Valle was convicted last month of conspiring to kidnap women, then cook, kill and eat them. He faces life in prison when he is sentenced June 19.

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.